“Pot Allowed Me To Take It Down a Notch”

The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks are playing this Sunday’s Super Bowl in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which means it could be the coldest Super Bowl ever. The Broncos have the NFL’s top offense and the Seahawks have the NFL’s top defense, which means it could be the most exciting Super Bowl ever. And the two teams happen to be from the two states that legalized recreational marijuana this year, which means it will inspire the most weed jokes of any Super Bowl ever.

But the issue of marijuana legalization is serious business for many current and former NFL players. With their bodies wrecked by years of physical abuse, some retirees see marijuana as a less harmful alternative to heavy-duty painkillers. Active players — even ones on the Broncos and Seahawks — are banned from using marijuana under current NFL rules, but Commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t entirely rule out the possibility of an eventual change to the policy when he said earlier this year that the league “will continue to support the evolution of medicine” to help deal with pain and injuries. Read More…

The patent, called “Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants,” was quietly filed in 2005 when scientists from the NIH found certain cannabis compounds had neuroprotectant properties, “for example, in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke or trauma, or the treatment of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”